Fire in the hole!

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We are creating a Time Machine at ‘Pataphysical Studios, our art collective in Mill Valley, where surrealism meets the maker culture.

The ‘Pataphysical Time Machine invites you to travel through time and meet characters from the past, present and future. We hope to engage our guests in a fun interactive experience that combines art, multimedia, theater and technology.

This 3D fly through video illustrates the experience we are creating. We invite our guests to go through a short interactive ritual during their visit: walk around the exhibit, step into our magic portal, pick a time to visit, travel to that time, meet its characters and return back to the present.

Through this experience, we hope to enchant guests of all ages and cultures. We typically host time travel expeditions with small groups of up to six people at a time, lasting between 10 and 20 minutes. To insure we don’t disrupt the delicate fabric of time, we ask that our guests do not exit the machine during our time travel journeys. We usually return our guests safely back to the time they came in from. Time travel is not for the faint of heart! 🙂

Press the buttons on this time travel dashboard to jump to different periods, which are shown on the illuminated screen above.

Exhibit

Our Time Machine exhibit is inspired by steampunk and art movements from the early 20th century: Pataphysics, dada and surrealism.

If you liked our ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, we think this new art exhibit will transport you even further. Fire in the hole!

Animated figures of the ancient god Anubis and the Creature from the Future Lagoon are here to guide your journey through time.

To make our art come to life, we are now developing new media and technologies that will animate the exhibit with animated characters, lights, sounds, motion and videos of the different times you will travel to.

Media

Our growing video library already includes dozens of short clips for different time periods, to create the illusion of time travel.

This Belle Époque video takes you back in time to Paris at the start of the 20th century, when the arts and sciences flourished, along with a “joie de vivre” (joy of living) that is music to our ears.

This short video is just one of the scenes you can visit with the Time Machine, and its authenticity is confirmed by copious historical footage from a variety of sources. Other scenes in our prototype include videos of the Big Bang, Dinosaurs, Ancient Egypt, the French Revolution, A Trip to the Moon, Dada Cafe Voltaire, Trumpocalypse — and many more. Here are some of the other time scenes we‘re considering for the next version.

Meanwhile, our sounds library now includes many time travel soundtracks, as well as musical quotes about time (e.g. “Time!” by the Chambers Brothers, “Crying Time” by Ray Charles, etc.).

We will combine many different digital technologies to support the Time Machine experience: Arduino and Raspberry Pi for artifact devices, NodeRed for the central host, MQTT for the messaging protocol, EasyESP firmware and other tech.

About a dozen creators are building the Time Machine together. We’re artists, engineers, makers, performers, poets, organizers and multimedia innovators. Over the years, we have grown into a world-class troupe of interactive artists, who like to make things together and learn from each other. Most of us are members of Pataphysical Studios and listed in this community page.

We work in small creative teams to design and build the different parts of the Time Machine, combining interactive art with lights, sounds, motion, and videos of different times. Besides Pataphysical Studios, some of our fabrication work takes place at at Tam Makers, our community makerspace in Mill Valley, where we use a wide range of tools, from laser cutters to CNC routers and milling equipment.

This is the most complex art project that our team has taken on, and we could use more help. We are now recruiting a few more creators to contribute to our community project, so we can complete it together in coming years.

If you would like to help build this interactive art experience with us, email us at info@pataphysics.us. We’re particularly interested in collaborators who you live in the Bay Area and can join our weekly work sessions in Mill Valley on Saturday afternoons. But if you live outside the Bay Area, we can also collaborate on a variety of tech and media projects. Let’s talk!

It’s a true pleasure to help new teams come together to design and build the various parts of our Time Machine. That’s what collective art is about. We can’t wait to see what it will look like in a year!

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dada art movement, ‘Pataphysical Studios is presenting a special exhibit on the ‘Pataphysics of Dada during the Dada World Fair, organized by City Lights in San Francisco in November 2016.

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, our poetic oracle, will be on display for ten days at the Canessa Gallery in North Beach, San Francisco. We will also present a new collection of paintings, sculptures and mobiles — as well as premiere our shadow puppet show called Ubu’s Dreams .

We will host these special events at the Canessa:

Pataphysics of Dada – Thursday November 3rd, 6-8pm (Opening night)

Pata Dada Ha Ha 1 & 2 – Saturday November 5th, 6-8pm

Pata Dada Ha Ha 3 – Saturday November 12th, 6-8pm

Join us for an evening of pataphysical art, theater, music and poetry, featuring Ubu’s Dreams, our new shadow puppet show — as well as special artworks, readings and performances by members of Pataphysical Studios and friends (see below).

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine is a community-created poetic oracle that invites you to face mysterious ‘cabinets of curiosity,’ ask about your future and get words of wisdom.

Open one of twenty “wonderboxes” for more inspiration: each box is a portal to another world, sparkling with lights, playing sounds, or spinning surreal objects. This collaborative art project is inspired by Combinatorial Poetics, Dada and Surrealism, and Maker-ism.

‘Pataphysics of Dada

Before Dada, there was ‘Pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions”. Many a dadaist has sung the praises of its founding force, French poet Alfred Jarry, best known for his farcical and revolutionary 1896 play Ubu Roi.

To celebrate the ‘Pataphysics of Dada, ‘Pataphysical Studios has created and curated a special exhibit for The Dada World’s Fair. The Canessa Gallery in North Beach will be our setting — adorned with our Pataphysical Slot Machine, plus assorted paintings, mobiles, kinetic sculptures, infographics about ‘Pataphysics, Alfred Jarry, Père Ubu (appearing in life-size form!) and the collective impact of Pataphysics on the future movement of Dadaism.

Ubu’s Dreams

Don’t miss the world premiere ofUbu’s Dreams, a set of original ‘pataphysical’ shadow plays. The plays star Père Ubu, along with many surreal characters from his unconscious: including big faces, talking ravens, exploding cows and other creatures from the wild ubu-beyond. Ubu’s Dreams explores new ways of telling stories with shadows, combining laser-cut wood figures, mechanical automata, a rich musical soundtrack as well as video and multimedia scenery.

We will present this show on three separate evenings at the Canessa Gallery:

Pataphysics of Dada – Thursday November 3rd, 6-8pm (Opening night)

Pata Dada Ha Ha 1 & 2 – Saturday November 5th, 6-8pm

Pata Dada Ha Ha 3 – Saturday November 12th, 6-8pm (Closing night)

This experiment was created by Mark Petrakis (a.k.a. Dr. Zboon) and Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio). Special props to Edward Janne (Dr. Mekano) for his magical automation skills, to Dan Cantrell (Dr. Bellowhead) for his incredible musical compositions, to Phyllis Florin (Dr. Phylora) and Jean Bolte (Dr. Figurine) for their wonderful set decor — and to all our friends at Pataphysical Studios for their generous support.

PataDada Ha Ha!

Join us for an evening of pata dada art, theater, music, fashion and poetry, featuring Ubu’s Dreams, our new shadow puppet show — as well as special artworks, readings and performances by members of Pataphysical Studios and special guests.

We are hosting this event on two separate nights at the Canessa:

Pata Dada Ha Ha 1 & 2 – Saturday November 5th, 6-8pm

Pata Dada Ha Ha 3 – Saturday November 12th, 6-8pm (Closing night)

Here’s the lineup for the first night, curated for the evening by Dr. Zboon:

Canessa Gallery

The Dada World Fair ‘Pataphysical exhibit will be at the Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. It is at the foot of the Pointy Building in the formerly bohemian, yet still quite interesting, North Beach district. See Google Map.

Exhibit Hours / Showtimes

Here is our schedule for this free exhibit and special events:

Opening Night Event / Ubu’s Dreams

Thu. Nov. 3rd – 6-8pm

‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit

Fri. Nov. 4th – 6-8pm

‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit

Sat. Nov. 5th – 1-4pm

PataDada Ha Ha! Event / Ubu’s Dreams & Special Guests

Sat. Nov. 5th – 6-8pm

‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit

Sun. Nov. 6th – 1-4pm

‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit

Fri. Nov. 11th – 4-7pm

PataDada Ha Ha! Event / Ubu’s Dreams & Special Guests

Sat. Nov. 12th – 6-8pm

Email us at info-at-pataphysics.us with any questions or comments.

Dada World Fair

This exhibit is part of the Dada World Fair, a series of lectures, roundtables, performances, film screenings, and art installations organized by City Lights and its partners in November 2016, to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the emergence of Dada.

We wish to thank organizer Dr. Peet Maravellis and Canessa Gallery owner Zach Stewart for so graciously inviting us to be part of this event.

In this talk, Fabrice will discuss how Pataphysical Studios came about, what we discovered together, and how our art project has grown into a “peer learning network”. He will also share findings from his maker art classes, which help students create their own interactive art.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dada movement, we are hosting a special exhibit of the Pataphysical Slot Machine during the Dada World Fair, from November 3rd to 12th.

The exhibit will run for ten days at the Canessa Gallery in North Beach, San Francisco. Save the date for the opening night presentation on Thursday, November 3, 2016, from 6 to 8pm. We will also host other presentations during the Fair. Stay tuned for upcoming attractions.